← Honoré Daumier

Come on... open your mouth!..., from 'The difficult moments of life,' published in Le Charivari, March 12, 1864

Original title: Come on... open your mouth!..., from 'The difficult moments of life,' published in Le Charivari, March 12, 1864

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Date

March 12, 1864

Medium

Lithograph on newsprint; second state of two (Delteil)

Dimensions

Image: 9 9/16 × 8 1/16 in. (24.3 × 20.4 cm) Sheet: 11 3/4 × 10 3/4 in. (29.8 × 27.3 cm)

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962

kurzbeschreibung

Honoré Daumier made this lithograph on 12 March 1864 for his series 'Les Moments Difficiles de la Vie' (The Difficult Moments of Life). Titled 'Komm schon... mach den Mund auf!...' ('Come on... open your mouth!...'), it stages a situation that is funny and menacing at once: a man holds a knife to the throat of a seated, frightened figure. The sheet appeared in the magazine 'Le Charivari'.

Description

A gaunt man with a torn shirt sits in the foreground, his mouth gaping wide, his whole body tense. Close behind him stands a second figure with a grim look, pressing a knife to his throat. Curtains suggest an interior. Light falling from the front picks out the faces and the action, while the lithograph stays in shades of grey, drawn in Daumier's caricatural manner.

Context

This sheet belongs to 'Les Moments Difficiles de la Vie', a series Daumier drew for the satirical paper 'Le Charivari'. Its subject was the ordinary, often absurd predicaments of bourgeois life. The lithograph came out on 12 March 1864 and survives in the second of two states (Delteil). Daumier worked regularly for 'Le Charivari', using lithography for social criticism and humour.

Impact

Threat and comedy slide into each other, as is typical of Daumier's caricatures. The exaggerated expressions and the dramatic gesture throw the absurdity of the situation into relief. Since the image knows only greys, attention settles on the figures and how they play off one another.

Technique

Daumier worked here in lithography on newsprint, a process he knew well. Lithography allowed fine lines and shading, which the sheet uses for the facial features and the texture of the clothing. The work has come down to us in the second state of two (Delteil).

AI-generated description text

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)